The Columbus Blue Jackets will see a familiar face in Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar who coached the (then) Lake Erie Monsters to a Calder Cup.
The Avalanche are currently on a homestand that has given them three out of four wins thus far. They hope to continue the success against a Blue Jackets club looking for consistency.
Against the Dallas Stars, the Blue Jackets played a slowed down brand of hockey and made it into a defensive showdown. With the injuries that have taken place, it looks to be the new norm, a different approach than "safe is death.:
VIDEO: John Tortorella
Blue Jackets Projected Lineup
| # | Player | Stats | # | Player | Stats | # | Player | Stats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Artemi Panarin | 41 GP, 10-24-34 | 18 | Pierre-Luc Dubois | 41 GP, 8-11-19 | 71 | Nick Foligno | 41 GP, 7-7-14 |
| 22 | Sonny Milano | 32 GP, 8-5-13 | 38 | Boone Jenner | 34 GP, 4-8-12 | 77 | Josh Anderson | 39 GP, 14-10-24 |
| 11 | Matt Calvert | 29 GP, 4-9-13 | 45 | Lukas Sedlak | 28 GP, 4-3-7 | 28 | Oliver Bjorkstrand | 41 GP, 8-18-26 |
| 64 | Tyler Motte | 24 GP, 3-1-4 | 14 | Jordan Schroeder | 13 GP, 0-0-0 | 37 | Markus Hannikainen | 22 GP, 2-2-4 |
| # | Player | Stats | # | Player | Stats |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | Zach Werenski | 37 GP, 11-8-19 | 3 | Seth Jones | 41 GP, 7-17-24 |
| 7 | Jack Johnson | 41 GP, 2-5-7 | 58 | David Savard | 40 GP, 2-6-8 |
| 4 | Scott Harrington | 19 GP, 1-1-2 | 65 | Markus Nutivaara | 34 GP, 2-12-14 |
| # | Player | GS | W-L-OL | GAA | SV% | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 72 | Sergei Bobrovsky | 33 | 19-11-3 | 2.44 | .919 | 4 |
| 70 | Joonas Korpisalo | 8 | 4-4-0 | 3.10 | .904 | 0 |
Three Storylines
- Feel The Bern-ier: The Colorado Avalanche will be without their normal goaltender Semyon Varlamov after he went down with a lower-body injury. That means that Jonathan Bernier will be starting against the Blue Jackets. They'll have an opportunity to take down another backup goaltender and build on their offensive performance against the Stars.
- Top Heavy: The Blue Jackets know all about being top heavy with the number of injuries they are dealing with at the moment. The Avalanche, on the other hand, go intentionally top heavy with a line that has Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, and Mikko Rantanen. They'll need to be kept in check and put up against strong defensive forwards. The Avalanche have depth but not enough that they will consistently hurt you in that regard. Force the Avalanches' hand.
- Unstoppable Force, Immovable Object: It has been bludgeoned into your head how bad the Blue Jackets power play is for almost the entire season. The man advantage won't get any easier when they take on an Avalanche team that has one of the best penalty kills in the league. If the Blue Jackets are looking for goals scored via special teams, they need to look elsewhere as the Avalanche are as stingy as you can get.
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